Made Soap Today

I finally got a pot of soap made today. I was worried I had lost my touch. I made a big soap making push before Maryland Sheep and Wool, but it's been a couple of months. I've been doing everything but soap - washing and dyeing fleeces, sewing bags, spinning wool, making cream and candles, but no soap. I got organized and made a batch of lavender today and it feels good to be "cooking" soap again. My operation is very, very basic. I use the same Walmart pot I've used for ten years. I stir the soap with a board and pour it into paper half-gallon milk cartons standing up in a box. I kind of like it that way. I traded wool for some nice molds but they require a lot of screwing and unscrewing, then washing. When the soap is hard I can tear the paper cartons away to reveal the lovely block. I cut up the block with a kitchen knife. I've been doing it this way for 15 years. And none of this melt and pour crap - that's cheating and you never know what's in the soap! And no coloring - my soap has it's own lovely natural color from the honey, shea butter and oatmeal I add to it. I don't need soap to look like it's had Kool Aid powder added to it. I like essential oils and I don't like blends. I like Patchouli to be Patchouli and not tainted with blueberry or chocolate or some such nonsense. I just couldn't do that to a lovely, expensive bottle of essential patchouli oil (my personal favorite). I confess I've made a couple of blends, usually adding lavender, like lavender-tea tree, or clary sage and lavender, but I don't think I'm going to do that any more. I would like to find a nice soap stamp someday but for now I'm content to just cut up my bars then wrap them in quilt fabric. It's an excuse to go to the quilt shop and buy more fabric - just shooosh, don't tell anybody!